Session 1 - Healthy environment, healthy lives – How the environment influences health and wellbeing in Europe

1. Martin Adams| 26 November 2020
Healthy environment, healthy lives:
How the environment influences health and well-being in Europe

2. Health inequities across Europe
Source: Eurostat
8 years difference in life
expectancy across EU Member
States
Poorer people live..
• live shorter lives
• fewer healthy life-years
and have…
• poorer self-perceived health
• more long-term health
problems
Life expectancy at
birth and GDP per
capita, 2017

3. Deaths driven by environmental pollution
• 1 in 8 deaths is linked to
environmental pollution in
Europe – 13 %
• Difference across Europe: East
and West
• Pollution is associated with
– 27 % of deaths in Romania
– 10 % in Denmark and Sweden
– And beyond the EU… 27 % in Bosnia
and Herzegovina
Source: WHO, 2016, Global Health Observatory

4. Age standardised deaths attributable to the
environment per 100 000 people, 2012

5. 90 % of EU deaths linked to the environment are from non-communicable disease
Top 10
non-communicable
diseases linked to
by environmental
pollution
Source: WHO, 2016, Global Health Observatory

6. Europe No 1. environmental risk factor - Air pollution
Around 400 000 premature
deaths in Europe in 2018
Air pollution is linked to:
• 17 % of deaths from lung
cancer
• 12 % of deaths from
ischaemic heart disease
• 11 % of deaths from stroke
by quintile

7. Many Europeans are still exposed to harmful levels of air pollution
Source: EEA Air Quality in Europe – 2020 report
EU urban population exposed to levels of air pollution above EU and WHO reference concentrations 2016 – 2018, according to:
4-8%
12-34%
43-48 %
15-20 % 75-90 %
96-99 %
74-78 %
4-7 % 4-7 %
13-17 %
19-31 %<1 %

8. No. 2 environmental risk - noise
EEA, 2020

9. Climate change impacts and vulnerability

10. Drinking water quality is high
EEA, 2016
High compliance with
parameters in the EU
Concerns:
• Small supplies
• Emerging chemicals
• Marginalised communities

11. Unknowns and emerging risks
• Chemical exposure causes 3 % of the
global disease burden
• Poor indoor air quality contributes to ill-
health – with the burden unknown
• Antimicrobial resistance – 25 000 patient
dies annually in the EU due to resistant
bacteria

12. Roof garden:
Water
management
Parklife: Health
and social
cohesion
Resilient cities: benefits of green and blue spaces
Blue space: Leisure
and cooling

13. COVID-19 and environmental health
• Zoonotic disease
• Air pollution may be linked to a higher
death rate from COVID-19
• Double burden of ill health and air
pollution in disadvantaged communities
• Critical role for WASH – water, sanitation
and hygiene
• Waste water monitoring for COVID-19

14. Short-term impacts of COVID-19 lock-down measures
April – 2020 Modelling nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
concentrations
Relative
difference
%
Source: EEA Air Quality in Europe – 2020 report

15. A new policy context: European Green Deal
• First climate-neutral continent
• Zero pollution strategy, including the
chemicals strategy for sustainability
• Biodiversity Strategy 2030
• New Circular Economy Action Plan
• Farm to fork strategy
• Just transition
• Sustainable European Investment Plan
• Future ready economy – new industrial strategy

16. Investing in nature: win-win-win

17. Thank you